Football fans urged to take precautions against measles infection in Russia

The multitude of enthusiastic football fans going to Russia for this year’s FIFA world cup are being advised to take precautions to avoid contracting the Measles virus, which according to several sources has been reported in some European countries, and including Russia the host country.

Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat, and it spreads through sneezing and coughing. Symptoms includes running nose, cough, fever, headaches, sore or pink eyes and then a rash that spreads all over the body.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has been alerting the public on this since the beginning of the year, with its latest update in March, stating that between February 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018, there have been 14,732 reported cases of measles. Most cases reported were Romania (5,224), Italy (4,978), Greece (1398) and Germany (906). 57 deaths as a result of the disease have been reported in the EU.

TASS, the Russian news agency had in January reported the country was tightening it borders to prevent the disease from spreading to the country from Ukraine or any of the European countries close to it.

“Rospotrebnadzor has tightened quarantine control in checkpoints through the state border of the Russian Federation and draws citizens’ attention to take the above-mentioned information into consideration when planning trips,” according to a report on TASS’ website.

Already, the measles virus now appears to have found its way to Russia, but with the influx of guests for the soccer tourney starting next weeks, the disease could find its way in more easily. This of course, also means people could get infected and take it back home with them.

Robb Butler, program manager for vaccine preventable diseases at the World Health Organization, in a comment credited to him, said that the measles virus is circulating in Russia at the moment and more than 800 cases have been reported in 2018. He is reported to have also emphasized the importance of vulnerability and risk involved if people do not check their status and get vaccinated before they travel for the world cup.

There are fears that without adequate vaccination, the disease could spread beyond its present scope as football lovers in their thousands, troop to the country.

The World Health Organisation already identified Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest number of unvaccinated children, yet the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is yet to issue a warning or advice for those going for the world cup to get vaccinated.

Sunday Omilabu, a professor of Virology and director, Central Research Lab at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos told BusinessDay that Nigeria is a measles endemic country but majority appear to have developed antibodies that can fight it. This he says is the product of decades of studying the virus through documentations and monitoring.

“If we don’t have immunity, there will be high rate of death,” said Omilabu in a phone interview. “Nigerians don’t have to worry but if they are not sure, they can check for their status before they leave (for Russia).”

The vaccination is expected to protect an individual for life, and can be provided in most hospitals where immunization services are offered.

The outbreak in Europe also makes it imperative that countries like Nigeria place more emphasis on immunisation, and particularly at an early age before antibodies have to be developed against the virus.

As Omilabu explained, “an infant before the age of 9 months which is the time for immunization in Nigeria (already) shows some antibodies indicating that they have been exposed to measles. This informed the views that there is a need for policy change. That is, bringing down the age for measles immunization to less than nine months.”

However, he says the problem with this is getting the appropriate vaccine for infants at an early age. The vaccine presently available is only for infants aged nine months and above.

Nigeria has also been challenged in achieving wider immunisation coverage due to several factors including; hard to reach areas, insecurity, nonchalant attitude of some parents and none availability of vaccine materials. Once this is addressed, then the virus will reduce, at least in the estimation of virology experts like Omilabu, who says after the “kick out Polio campaign”, measles is next.

Oghogho Edosomwan